A Brand New Beat
by 9261slipkn
Summary: Yuzuru Otonashi has passed on, but a new group of students have come to the afterlife, including a familiar face from the anime. What will they uncover, and how will they react to finding out about their fate. Hatsune Otonashi is among the new students, how will she cope with finding messages left behind by her brother?
1. Prologue

Hey Guys, this is my first fan fic, but I've been wanting to do one for a while now. Angel Beats is by far my No.1 favorite anime of all time, and so i hope i do it justice. Any criticism or advice anyone has will be greatly appreciated, as i admit that i am new to the scene, and that i have a lot to learn. I hope to update this story as much as possible (aiming for 1-2 times a week, maybe more). Anyway, without further adieu, my Angel Beats fan fic.

Note: I do not own Angel beats, or any of the characters which are contained within the anime/manga. I only own my own ideas in this fan fic, and the O/Cs, if they are similar to any other characters from a fan fic, or anime, then it was unintentional, and if im made aware of this fact, i will fix that.

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Prologue

"There, I'm finally done." He leaned back with a sigh. "Who knew that just leaving behind a couple messages would take so long, but, as long as it helps them all pass on then it's all worth it."

The man stood up from behind the computer in the principal's office and took one last look around. "There sure were a lot of fun memories in this place, but now, it's time I moved on. I just hope that any of the new guys can understand what I've tried to tell them, and find peace too."

Looking into the sky through the window, as if searching for a familiar face, he closed his eyes with a content look on his face. Whispering almost too quietly for even himself to hear, he says "I'm coming… Kanade." And vanished.

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Well, that's my prologue done, I plan to get episode 1 up later tonight, as i'm working on it right now. As always, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.


	2. New Faces

As promised, I've introduced some main characters for my story, if anyone has ideas for other O/Cs i could use, that would be great, so far Yuki is going to be a leader role, similar to Yuri, and Emiko will be the energetic little girl, similar to Yui, but much more childish and a little naive.

Note: I do not own Angel beats, or any of the characters which are contained within the anime/manga. I only own my own ideas in this fan fic, and the O/Cs, if they are similar to any other characters from a fan fic, or anime, then it was unintentional, and if im made aware of this fact, i will fix that.

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"Hey Yuki, do you think she'll be ok?" A quiet and unfamiliar voice asked.

"Of course she will, it's not like she is gonna die, she's just unconscious." The person who seemed to be called Yuki replied as if it were no big deal that she was unconscious.

"Ugh, my head… What happened to me? Where am I?" I asked, the two people who were talking just a second ago looking at me like I was some kind of ghost. I look around the room, recognizing objects in the room as a few beds, some chairs and curtains for privacy between the beds. It looked like an ill-equipped hospital ward.

"Ahh, you're finally awake. My name is Yuki Sasaki; just call me Yuki, what's your name?" said the girl with light brown hair who looked a bit older and taller than me, I recognized her voice as being the second one to talk.

"Ugh, my name is Otonashi, Hatsune Otonashi… I'm sorry, but I don't understand where I am, last I remember, my big brother snuck me out to see the Christmas tree lights, and I fell asleep when I got back to the hospital…" I was getting very confused about what was going on here, why wasn't I in my hospital bed, where were all the doctors, and why was I wearing a school uniform?

"Christmas trees? I LOVE CHRISTMAS TREES! The lights and all the presents, it's so much fun" The first girl who seemed to be really quiet and shy suddenly burst with enthusiasm, jumping all over the place. "I'm Emiko Matsumoto, nice to meet you." Emiko's face was practically nose to nose with mine now, not something I had expected from the quiet looking girl who was now beaming at me expectedly. The girl looked to be a few years younger than me, and had her pink hair drawn back into ponytails complimenting her childlike appearance.

"Y-yeah, nice to meet you too Emiko." I replied nervously. "I'm sorry, I still don't understand why I'm here, and not back at my hospital, my brother said he was going to visit me today, if I'm not there, he'll get worried…" I was starting to worry about whether I would see my brother any time soon, maybe these two could help me get back?

"Oh… I'm sorry Hatsune… but you won't be seeing your brother today…" Yuki to be a little reluctant to tell me something, but I had to know…

"W-what do you mean? All I have to do is get back to the hospital and the-"

"Sorry Hatsune-Chan… It's not that easy…" Emiko seemed reluctant too, like there was a big secret they didn't want to tell me.

"Hatsune, I don't know how to break it to you… but… You're dead…" Yuki said.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… ehhh?"

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Hope you all like the first chapter of my story line, i figured that Hatsune most likely died in her sleep, and so wouldn't remember actually dying. As always, feedback is appreciated.


	3. The hammer comes down

Alright, Chapter 2 of my story only the day after posting Chapter 1. I just can't help but keep writing this, the ideas just come to mind and i have to put them into the story. As always, please leave some feedback, it would really help. I'm not going to be one of those people who ask for a bunch of reviews before posting, that's not what this is about for me, i just like to write this stuff, it's fun for me believe it or not. Anyway, enough rambling on from the boring Author, off to the story!

Note: I do not own Angel Beats etc etc, disclaimer stuff, all that jazz.

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_I'm dead? But, how can I be dead? No. This is all just some big joke right? Big Brother is going to come bursting in any second and tell me everything is going to be alright, and take me back. I know he will… But… what if he doesn't know where I am? How will he find me? This is a nightmare, I just want to go back and wait for big brother to come get me…_

"I'm so sorry Hatsune-Chan, I thought you knew…" Emiko was so excited just a second ago, but now, her face was the same as the doctor's the day that they told me that I had cancer… I knew from that face that they weren't kidding… But surely, surely there's some kind of misunderstanding… maybe I heard them wrong? Yeah, that's it, I heard them wrong.

"Ugh… I think that I heard you wrong… can you repeat that please?" I looked hopefully over to Yuki, my eyes pleading that what she said wasn't true.

"I'm sorry Hatsune… you're dead…" She looked away as she told me… now I knew that this was no joke, she was too serious to be joking about something like this. I knew that the cancer was going to get me one day, and I knew that day was soon, but still, I didn't want to think about how big brother was all alone, I wanted to be with him.

"Big brother…" I murmured quietly, "I'm sorry, I wasn't strong enough… I couldn't help you"

"Hatsune-Chan… Everything is going to be ok now… you have us here now, so let's go have some fun, 'kay?" Emiko started perking up a little, going back to the over excitable girl that she was before.

"O-okay… Thank you Emi-Chan" I gave her a weak smile, she was trying to cheer me up, and her enthusiasm was contagious, I couldn't help but perk up a little after seeing her smiling face.

"O~kay then, let go~!" Emiko grabbed my hand, pulling me out the door with her, laughing like a little school girl… hold on… why were we in a school?

"Emi-Chan, Yuki-Chan… Why are we in a school? I thought you said we were dead?" I was starting to get really confused.

"Yeah, this is the afterlife; I don't know why it's a school but oh well. Not everyone here is dead, some of them are kinda weird, and they don't react to stuff like they should. We call them NPCs"

"Yup, they're not like us, were humans, but they're not, its kinda weird though."

I was starting to get confused again, so I thought I should ask some simple questions until I understood a bit better. "Okay then, so why am I wearing a different uniform?"

"You're not the different one, ours is. I'll explain everything when we get there."

After walking for ages, we finally arrived outside the Principals office, there were two others wearing the same uniform as Yuki and Emiko, it looked like they were trying to get into the principal's office, but why did they need a computer hooked into the door?

"Hey Yuki, is this the new girl?"

"Yeah, this is Hatsune Otonashi. Hatsune, these are more members of our group, the one with the glasses playing around with the computer trying to get into the Principal's office is Akira Watanabe, and the other guy being the guinea pig for opening the door is Takeshi Ikeda, he may look like a moron, but he's an ok guy." Yuki was talking to me as if they were barely there.

"Hey! I'm right here you know!"

"Oh, so you're not an ok guy? I guess I was wrong." Yuki was completely ignoring the fuming Takeshi as she walked over to Akira. "How's it going Akira?"

"Whoever created this must have known what they were doing, I can't find out how to get inside safely… Or they were a complete moron and it just needs a simple password."

"A password huh? Well, that's annoying, keep trying and tell me if you get any progress."

"Why would you need a password to get into the Principal's office, why not just-"

"Ooh, I know it!" Emiko skipped up to the door and yelled out "OPEN SESAME!" as she opened the door a giant hammer came down and sent Emiko flying out of the window at the end of the hall.

"That's why…" Yuki said calmly.

"EMIKO! Why are you all just standing around? We have to go help her!" I screamed out, worrying about my new found friend.

"She'll be fine, this is the afterlife remember? We can't die here, not permanently anyway. She'll be back in a couple hours." Yuki said this like it was common knowledge, and nobody else seemed to care that she was sent flying, like it was an everyday occurrence.

"Okay, well now that you've met a few of the others, I'll tell you what's going on. We are wearing a different uniform so that we can tell who's one of us and who isn't it helps to tell who's an NPC and who isn't We are the Afterlife Battlefront 2!" Yuki announced proudly, like it was some big unveiling.

"Yeah, I know that…" I said simply, unimpressed.

"What? How could you know that already?" Yuki looked at me confused and slightly annoyed.

"Well, the first part wasn't hard to figure out, and the uniform says Afterlife Battlefront on it with a 2 written in pen." I can't believe she thought I wouldn't notice that. "What I don't know is what you guys all do… Why are you even a battlefront?"

"Oh… well ok then, basically we are a group of people that, well… we don't really do that much right now… The ones that came before us, I found records of them fighting some angel, but we haven't seen any angels since we got here, so we don't really do anything…"

"Yeah! We just play and have fun!" Emiko suddenly appeared behind me causing me to jump away in surprise, landing on the Principal's door, the last thing I saw was a large hammer coming towards me, and then black.

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Hehe, this chapter was really fun for me to write, i'm having a little trouble wondering how big i should make this new battlefront, any suggestions or O/Cs would be great, anyway, until next time!


	4. The Realization

_Here's another chapter of my fan fic, i think this one came along quite nicely, but as always it is up to you guys to say where i need to improve, and feedback is always appreciated._

_Note: I do not own Angel Beats or any of the Characters or Story line from the series, as much as i would love to._

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_"Hey, Hatsune what do you say we go sit down in that cafe and have some cake? After all, looking at these Christmas tree lights isn't all I brought you out for today." I could feel his heart beat through the back of his chest as my big brother carried me piggy back style through the streets sparkling with more Christmas tree lights than I thought possible. Going to the cafe sounded nice, I liked cake. But it wasn't the cake which made that night so special, it was just spending time with my big brother, I always looked up to him, and I always did my best to smile for him when he came to see me. I wasn't even strong enough to respond to him properly, I wanted to say 'Thank you bro.' just like I always did… I knew he liked that. But still, all I could manage was a tiny murmur, "mmm…" that was all I could say to him to say thank you to him. To help him to be happy, that was all I wanted, but I couldn't even say a simple thank you._

"Oh, she's waking up." Yuki smiled at me from the chair next to my bed.

"I'm so sorry Hatsune-Chan, it was my fault you walked into the door…" Emiko was looking down at her feet, nervous as when I first saw her. But where was I this time? Looking around a little, I quickly realized where I was… I was back in the infirmary… great, the last place I wanted to be, stuck in another hospital bed.

"It's no big deal Emi-Chan, I didn't really feel it anyway" I lied… that thing hurt like hell! But I didn't want Emiko to keep feeling guilty, so a little white lie wouldn't hurt.

"Really? Well that's a relief, I'm so glad that you aren't hurt, but are you sure you're not mad?" Emiko's eyes looked into mine, pleading that I wouldn't be angry at her.

I pulled Emiko into a friendly hug, "I'm not mad Emi-Chan, don't worry about it." Emiko seemed a bit surprised at first, but she quickly turned back into her bubbly, overexcited self after a whole half second of hugging, and while Emiko went on rambling about how happy she was that everything was okay whilst hugging the life out of me which was quite a feat considering a giant hammer wasn't able to succeed, Yuki suddenly cut in.

"Hatsune, now that you're okay again, I'd like to give you a little run down of the history of the Afterlife Battlefront, and why it is that we fight." She looked so serious, almost as if it were a life or death-… wait a minute, it is kind of a life or death situation, well, maybe not the life part seeing as were all dead already but-

"Are you done day dreaming yet Hatsune? I'd like to get on with this…" Yuki was looking at me as if I had been out of it for ages.

"Hehe, sorry Yuki, guess I kinda just spaced out there huh?" I was scratching the back of my head the same way that I saw big brother do it whenever he was nervous, and it kind of made me feel a little less awkward.

"Hmm, alright, well let's go up to the roof, I want to show you something." After a few minutes walking, well, more like Yuki dragging me along, we finally arrived at the roof, overlooking the track and field of the school, with the sunset in the distance and the NPCs going

to clubs, it almost made me forget what this place really was, and also made me realize how mammoth this school really was.

"Okay, so now for the lesson." Yuki announced, I suddenly felt like I was about to be lectured non-stop for hours about something really boring and meaningless. "To be honest, we are the second generation of the Afterlife Battlefront, the ones who came before us are shrouded in a bit of mystery, but once we finally get into their hide out, I'm sure we will be able to find out a whole lot of other stuff about them. What we do know was all taken from one person's diary, a person called Yuri, she seems to have been the leader and founder of the Battlefront. Most of the stuff was really cryptic, she spoke of many 'Operations' which by the names of them were really intense, 'Operation: Tornado' being one of the most frequently used ones. But there was always one thing that was obvious to us. They were fighting against God, and the one they called Angel. Anyway, after a while, it seems that they stopped fighting angel, and she starts to doubt if she is the enemy, but one thing is for sure. She didn't stop fighting god, none of them could accept the life they lead, and were fighting this cruel god for making life so unfair for them, and so, as their successors, it is our duty to continue that fight against god!" Yuki's speech ended with her raising her fist into the air as if she had just rallied a bunch of troops for battle.

"Ok, well, if we were to fight against god, but this 'Angel' wasn't the right one to go after, then who is?" I asked the obvious question that hung in the air.

"Uhh, were still trying to figure that out… But I'm sure that once we are in their hide out, we will find the answer!" Yuki's eyes showed that she truly believed every word she had just said; the confidence was more than slightly inspiring. "Oh, I just realized something… We haven't actually asked you if you'll join up with us yet… So, uhh… Will you join us?"

I looked at her dumbfounded after realizing that I hadn't actually joined with them yet… "Oh, I thought I was already with you guys… so, yeah I guess I'll join with you." I was doing that nervous scratching thing again, was it becoming a habit? Not necessarily a bad thing, it made me feel closer to him somehow.

"Great! Well, if there's nothing else, I suppose I'll have to get you a uniform, Emiko should be able to handle that for you, why don't you go and see her?"

"Well, actually, there is one other thing… I wanted to know if this Yuri was the only one you knew of that was in the Battlefront before." I was wondering if anyone I knew from the hospital had been here before, maybe I could find out about what happened to them.

"Well, there are a few other names mentioned… let's see, there was Hinata, Noda, Matsushida, Ooyama, Iwasawa, Takamatsu, Shiina and…" Yuki suddenly stopped; she was staring at the piece of paper, almost like she was trying to understand what was written there.

"Yuki… What is it? Is something wrong?" I tried to look over her shoulder at the piece of paper, but she quickly scrunched it up into a ball and turned away from me.

"Nope, that's all that we've got so far, I still have to finish reading it, so there could be a few more for all we know… Anyway, go see Emiko about the new uniform, 'kay?" She was really quick to brush me off; something must be bothering her… Well, if she wants to talk about it, then she will when she's ready.

"Alright, I'll go find her, see you later Yuki" I smiled as I walked off to find Emiko.

**Yuki's Point of View**

"Yeah, see you…" I murmured with my back to her as I slowly pulled the paper back into its original shape, staring at those words on the page… '_Yuzuru Otonashi'_ that's Impossible, it can't be… Didn't she say that was her big brother's name? But she said she saw him the night before she died… how could he have been her so long ago? None of this made any sense… The only thing I knew right now was that I couldn't let her see this, not yet at least… It would only hurt her to know that her older brother that she looked up to so much had already been in the afterlife before she came. She would be heartbroken. "Why? Why did it have to be him? Him of all people?"

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So how did you guys like the little secret that Yuki now has to keep? any suggestions for any O/Cs or story line suggestions would be great, just pm me, I'm always happy to hear from any of you guys. Until next time.


	5. Getting the uniform

Hello again guys, here is another chapter of my fan fic, hope you all enjoy it. Yesterday after uploading my last chapter, a friend thought that if this fan fic gets really popular, then perhaps i could join with him and a few other people i know to turn it into a visual novel. I'd like to know what everyone thinks of that idea, obviously i wont be making it until the story has progressed A LOT more, but it would be nice to know about anyone's initial thoughts on the topic.

Note: classic boring disclaimer, i don't own Angel Beats, please stop reminding me, but hey, a guy can dream can't he?

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_Yuki really seemed troubled by something, I hope she's okay. Maybe she recognized someone's name on that list? No way, she's the one who copied that list down; she would have recognized it sooner if that was it. Oh well, she will tell me when she is ready, for now I just need to find Emi-Chan and get one of those uniforms, this regular one is so plain and boring. I wonder where Emi-Chan could be… I think I'll check the cafeteria… ugh… Where is the cafeteria? I don't know my way around here at all, how am I meant to find her?_

"Hey, isn't that the new chick that Yuki was talking about?"

"Huh?" I looked up to see a group of three people in the hallway ahead of me, all looking towards me; what's more is that they were all wearing the uniform for the Battlefront.

"Yes, I believe it is, what was her name again?"

"It's Hatsune, right? We met earlier, it's me, Takeshi. I hope that hammer didn't make you forget me already." He said with a little knowing grin on his face. That little grin bugged me to no end, yet there was a little soft side to it which I liked.

"Yeah, I remember you're the one that was being a guinea pig for opening that door. Hope you didn't hit your head too much." I retorted, happy with my own little victory over him.

He was tall, about 5"8, with muscles that made him look like he was built like an ox, Short brown hair with a caring face that suited him, but the most like able feature was his green eyes and a smile that was genuine.

"*giggles* Yeah that sounds just like you Takeshi, I wonder how many times that hammer has hit your head..." The tall girl that looked to be very self-confident seemed to enjoy laughing at others' expense.

"HEY! Don't you laugh at Takeshi! He could beat you all up if he wanted!" The third one of the group looked really out of place in the group; he looked more than a few years younger than everyone else, and was really quite cute too.

I kneeled down to look the little guy in the eyes and said, "aww, are you trying to protect your friend? How cute, and what's your name?"

The small one turned to me with a look in his eyes that said nothing good about what he wanted to do to me right then. His eyes were shining red with anger as his blank face glared at me menacingly. "Did... you... just... call... me... CUTE?" Takeshi quickly pulled him back away from me as he tried to get out of his grip to get to me.

"Hehe, sorry about him, he's actually a lot older than he looks, he is a year older than me and hates whenever someone calls him cute." he calmly told me while holding the smaller one off from attacking me. "His name is Takeru Tanaka."

I couldn't believe this guy was older then Takeshi, he looked to be 5"2, with red hair and green eyes that shone brightly, The boyish face didn't help either and the way he smiled made him look soo cute, in my eyes he still looked like a little boy but after that display I wasn't sure if I wanted to say it to him.

"And I am Kazumi Hayashi, I'm sure that the pleasure is all yours." Kazumi announced her name as if she were royalty and I was some low life, that really bugged me.

"Ugh, yeah... I'm sure it is..." I was really unimpressed by her, while she did walk around with a certain grace about her, the moment she opened her mouth, she did nothing but annoy me. She had long blond hair and looked to be 6"0 in height, she had blue eyes that looked perfect on that face, and her skin looked like it had never seen hard work or any kind of tough life. But her sarcastic smile spoiled that look otherwise any boy would consider her beautiful.

"Anyway, we were all heading out to get some lunch in the cafeteria, would you like to join us?" Takeshi had finished calming down Takeru, who was now sulking off to the side mumbling "I'm not cute; I'm big and strong like Takeshi."

"Ugh, sure, but I need to find Emi-Chan so that I can get an Afterlife Battlefront Uniform. You don't happen to know where she is would you."

"She's always either running around or eating in the cafeteria, so she could be there. I swear that kid has too much energy." Takeshi seemed to be the only normal one of the group, unlike the other two I felt kind of safe with him, which was unusual, I didn't normally feel safe around others.

"She is energetic, and I am pretty hungry, so lunch sounds good."

We all walked through the school with Kazumi acting like she was the Queen, Takeru attempting to imitate Takeshi, and Takeshi being the only other normal one, was pointing things out to me as we walked.

When we finally arrived at the cafeteria, I realized I didn't have anything to pay for my food with. Pointing out my lack of money to Takeshi, just as he was about to reply we all heard something like a miniature stampede and turned to see Emiko charging toward us with her arms stretched out. "Hatsu-CHAAAAAAN!" the small girl cried out as she jumped onto me bowling me over and almost knocking me unconscious for the second time since I met her with one of her hugs that would crush cars.

"Ugh, you're really strong... Emi-Chan, but I can't breathe..."

"Oops, sorry" she said innocently as she jumped off of me.

I was surprised this young girl had soo much strength; she was short in height I'd say 5"3, with a cute face and long pink hair, pink eyes and a slim body. Where she got her strength from puzzled me to no end.

"I'm glad that I saw you here Emi-Chan, Yuki told me to talk to you about getting one of those uniforms." I said as I was getting myself off of the ground.

"Yup, she told me about that, here you go." Emiko passed me a uniform just like theirs in my size, but I started to question how she knew what size I was, though fear of the answer kept me quiet. "Okay, now go try it on Hatsu-Chan."

"Eh? Now?"

"Why not?"

"I was about to go and have lunch..."

"Let us worry about that Hatsune, you go get that uniform on, and take your time, go, go." Takeru was rushing me off, which was quite odd as he hadn't spoken to me since I called him cute. I failed to notice the evil smirk spread on his little face.

"Alright then, I'll go..." I decided that if he was talking to me again, I didn't want to ruin it, and I was going to get some food when I got back anyway.

After Emiko rushed me into the nearest restroom and saying how good I looked in the uniform while hugging me for the next five minutes, we finally got back to the cafeteria to see the others all sitting at their own table. "Hey guys were back."

"Welcome back Hatsune, the uniform really suits you." Takeshi welcomed me.

"Thanks Takeshi, we would've been back sooner, but Emiko was hugging onto me for ages again."

"Well, I'm off to get my food." Emiko announced.

After sitting down, Takeshi went back to his conversation with Kazumi. "Here's yours Hatsune, enjoy!" Takeru quickly passed me my food and went back to his own. I shrugged it off and went to eat my own. After taking my first bite of my food I noticed the little knowing smirk on Takeru's face as my mouth lit up with how spicy the food was. My mouth felt like I had just swallowed a forest fire as I ran off to get as much water as humanly possible, and then some more.

After sitting back down I looked over at the knowing little smirk that Takeru was wearing. Everyone else was looking at me wondering what I ran off for. "It was really spicy, what the hell is this anyway?"

"Ugh, is that what I think it is?" Takeshi was eyeing my plate like it was about to explode, killing everyone in the cafeteria.

"What did you get that thing for Hatsune?" Kazumi asked.

"Takeru got it for me..." I looked over at the smaller boy who was innocently eating his food while trying to suppress his laughter.

Takeshi glared at Takeru, causing him to shrink back and look apologetic. "Why did you get her the Mapo Tofu? Everyone knows how spicy it is, nobody can eat it." In response Takeru only mumbled.

"What was that Takeru?"

"She...*mumble*"

"Speak up Takeru"

In a voice we could barely hear, he replied "She called me cute."

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That was a really fun chapter to write, and i want to give a special thanks to my friend DJ for giving me a huge hand with putting this chapter out, I had a mild case of writers block, and you gave me some great ideas to make this chapter something I can be proud of.

As always, please feel free to review, comment, give plot or OC suggestions, they're always more than welcome. Until next time.


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